The Voice sucks in its breath for a moment before continuing through the earpiece, "Transmigrator, do you remember why the codex is so important?"

"Uh, it can drop dimensional barriers?" I reply after thinking for a bit, "I remember you saying that the codex could open the way to divine realms? Something like that at least."

"Yes, that is correct, but also an over simplification." The Voice answers, "I had never explained to you how the codex accomplishes this. You see, while the codex's is capable of serving as a means of fast travel, that is not its core function."

"Core function?" I furrow my brows, "You're saying that blasting a path through a dimensional barrier is a side effect of what the codex really does?"

"Indeed." The Voice rasps, "The codex in truth is a containment facility. It holds a null field within itself."

"Null field?" I repeat as my mind does a somersault, "Containment? Try slowing down for a moment?"

"This matter might require a bit of background and time is short." The Voice rumbles, "A question then, to gauge your level of understanding. What is the shortest possible distance between two objects?"

"A straight line, duh." I roll my eyes, "I did go to school you know. And college."

"Then your education was wasted." The Voice says, "The shortest possible distance between two objects is zero."

"That's a trick question." I snort, "If it was zero, then there would not be a need for a fast travel device at all."

"That is where you are wrong." The Voice elaborates, "The codex does not actually overcome the barriers or distance between its wielder and the desired destination. Rather, the mountain moves towards the man instead."

I settle back into my seat and spend the next few seconds reflecting. Could such a thing be possible? Its sounds ass backwards, like putting the cart in front of the horse.

The Voice carries on with its explanation, "The key to this phenomenon is the null field. The codex projects the null field towards the edge of the designated destination. Anything caught within the null field will be swallowed into a pocket dimension, "nulled" so to speak from the present dimension. This allows the distance between two points to become zero as long as the null field is deployed."

"No way. What about the nulled space?" I ask, mouth agape, "Everything swallowed by the null field is gone, just like that?"

"Of course not." The Voice refutes, "The intervening distance is held in the null field until the codex's wielder reaches his destination. Then the codex retracts itself, causing the field to collapse and the nulled area to return to real space once again."

"Fold space theory. That's what you're talking about isn't it?" I challenge.

"Is that what the phenomenon is referred to in your dimension?" The Voice queries, "If so then yes, that is indeed what I am referring to."

"That's impossible." I snort, "Back home, fold space theory was thrown about as a theoretical means of faster than light travel. This world is nowhere advanced enough to make fold space practical. Unless you're saying that the codex was dropped by aliens from their spaceship, all your assumptions about the codex are rubbish."

A long, awkward silence is the only thing that greets my rebuttal.

"Oh my god!" I shout, face palming, "Are you seriously telling me that aliens are involved here?"

"If you would stop getting worked up needlessly," The Voice grumbles, "then I would have been able to inform you that the Precursor civilization which manufactured the codex was not native to the three worlds."

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"The Precursors are aliens." I say slowly, "The same Precursors that humans, angels and demons descended from? Those Precursors?"

"Yes." The Voice says in a completely level tone without the slightest trace of sarcasm or mockery.

"Aliens. Aliens." I mutter stupidly while staring into space. While I was expecting a twist to be revealed at the tail end of this adventure, since after all that's when all the truth bombs are dropped, this particular bit of ordnance completely blindsided me.

"Alien colonists to be exact." The Voice continues, "I had kindly allowed them to settle this world but their lust for inter group genocidal violence brought about -"

"You know what? Let's get back on topic." I cut The Voice off as my head continues to spin, "Anyway, why did you never tell me about this null field business?"

"Because I only recently put together the pieces myself." The Voice responds,"Remember, the codex is not one of my creations. I only made the connection between the codex and a null field after the battle at Ascension Tower."

I think back to my assault on Cuck Man's base at the Tower. Cuck Man and Hobo Beard had managed to get the codex working after hooking it up to as many supercomputers they could get their hands on. As the codex began to deploy, Naiberg said something about it's through purpose as well. Something that caused The Voice to completely flip out.

"Hobo Beard said that the codex's real function is to serve as a gate for the ascension into godhood." I recall, "You then had a panic attack when it began to generate an artificial synchronicity event."

The Voice scoffs, "Naiberg was wrong. Ascension is simply another form of journey between destinations. What alerted me to the codex's true nature was the artificial synchronicity event."

Synchronicity. An event where two individual things share the same metaphysical space at the same time. It was how I was summoned to this dimension. Gallant and I puked over ourselves at the exact same moment, down to the very last second. When we shared the same spot in the universe, The Voice took the opportunity to snatch my soul away. But if the codex could reduce distances between points to zero, then that means -

"The null field was deploying at the Tower." I hazard a guess, "The field collapsed the moment I unplugged the codex, but while it was active, the zero distance phenomenon had been created."

"Correct." The Voice confirms, "Analysis of the data that had been processed by the supercomputers at the time indicates that a zero distance had been established at the sub-atomic level as the gates of ascension began to open."

"Two points sharing the same location." I muse, "And that created the artificial synchronicity. So it was always just a side effect. But how is the codex relevant to this discussion?"

"Ordinarily, the codex would be useless without its attendant infrastructure." The Voice rasps, "Supercomputers are needed to perform the mathematics required for a controlled deployment of the null field. A power source is required to ensure the field is kept stable."

I fold my arms frowning, "But we are not in an ordinary situation now I suppose?"

"No, we are not." The Voice sighs, "There is only one way to use the codex in its current state. Forcing a containment breach and allowing the null field to extend outwards completely uncontrolled and unstable."

The laptop's screen now displays the world map, the full version this time. A blinking red dot appears just off the coast of the Southern Continent, and an opaque circle of black begins to extend outwards from the red dot, swallowing the continent completely. The black sphere constantly expands and retracts, unable to remain a constant size, but nevertheless manages to engulf the continent even in its most enfeebled state.

"As you can see," The Voice continues, "breaching the null field's containment would catch the Southern Continent in the dimensional fold, erasing it from reality, at least until the field collapses naturally on its own accord. We cannot let that happen, Transmigrator."

I want to ask whether Fate can breach the null field's containment before recalling what happened in the battle against her. Fate's power is literally being a Mary Sue. If there's a way to let the null field out, Fate will find it. If there isn't, she would conveniently manage to perform the impossible. Instead of wasting anymore time, I turn my attention to the real question that matters.

"What's so important about the South anyway?" I ask, "What are you hiding there that you don't want anyone getting near to?"

A long silence.

"I can't help you if you're not willing to be honest with me." I remark pointedly to The Voice.

The Voice begins hesitantly, "Transmigrator, do you know why you can control Mr Gallant's body despite not actually being physically present?"

"Its obvious." I snort, "I'm transmitting my thoughts from my home dimension right? Its like remote con - no way. No fucking way."

"You have the answer." The Voice murmurs softly, "Go ahead and say it."

In all my time in this dimension, I had never actually met The Voice, not face to face. It had always communicated remotely. Despite being perpetually absent, The Voice could spawn objects, take control of machines and more. Common sense told me that it had to be doing these things from somewhere, but I had never bothered figuring out where that place was. Its all so obvious now. 

"Your brain. The Southern Continent is where your brain is."